Generally, when there is danger of leakage of liquid and gas at an anastomosed portion of a rectum or large intestine after a patient has undergone an operation on the rectum or large intestine, in order to divert indwelling feces with an aim of preventing the leakage, an abdominal colostomy device is used. This abdominal colostomy device has been widely adopted in advanced countries, mainly for aged or feeble persons or a person who has undergone radiotherapy before an operation. Leakage of liquid and gas results in a very dangerous situation, which can also lead to a lawsuit.
In order to avoid permanent installation of the abdominal colostomy device, a temporary abdominal colostomy was disclosed in the art. However, in the case of installing a temporary abdominal colostomy device, it cannot be removed until 2˜3 months have elapsed. Also, 30˜60% of patients cannot be restored to an original state and therefore lives for the rest of his or her life with the temporary abdominal colostomy device installed. That is to say, while an operation must be performed again for removing the temporary abdominal colostomy device, since an aged or feeble person has a weak health condition, it is dangerous for the patient to undergo the second operation.
To cope with these drawbacks, recently, a fecal discharging device has been disclosed in the art. The fecal discharging device comprises a tube which is made of a thin elastic waterproof material. The tube is sutured to an inner wall of an intestinal tract at a position 5˜10 cm upward of an anastomosed portion of the intestinal tract, so that feces can be discharged without coming into contact with the anastomosed portion.
Nevertheless, the fecal discharging device, which is also referred to as a “colon shield”, still has disadvantages as described below, and therefore, is not widely used.
It is difficult to suture the vinyl tube to the inner wall of the intestinal tract, and an extended period of time is required. In particular, the chance that the thin tube will be held properly sutured to the inner wall of the intestinal tract is so slim that stability is doubted upon use of the colon shield.
While the thin tube constituting the fecal discharging device can be easily removed due to the fact that it is naturally detached from the inner wall of the intestinal tract within about 5˜10 days, a defect is caused in that it is difficult to effect indwelling fecal diversion through a desired period of time.